Sierra Cartwright - Doms of Dark Haven

Brian lunged forward, attacking low. Harte met his attack calmly, taking him down almost casually in a smooth throw. Brian came up with a snarl, his fists clenched, and he dived at Harte like a mindless animal.

They grappled, a streak of blood appeared on Harte's rib cage. He cuffed the former beta with a partially shifted hand. The huge paw was graced with claws that no natural wolf would have. Three lines of blood welled up on Brian's torso.

Sage whistled. “Takes a lot of mojo to pull that off.”

They went to the ground, rolling and scrambling, slick with sweat and blood.

From the corner of her eye, Eva saw Patrice stiffen, preparing to jump into the fray.

She reached out, clasped the other woman's arm, and growled, halting her in her tracks. Patrice bared her teeth but backed off, reluctantly submitting to the new alpha female.

Harte pinned the blond's face to the ground. All around, the night went quiet.

Green light from the traffic signal tinted the fog eerily. Eva heard cars in the distance. A siren wailed, and she looked around uneasily.

The street was abandoned; she didn't even sense the presence of street people.

The light changed to yellow and then red. The men lay on the ground, motionless except for their breathing.

“Submit?”

Brian must have said something, because Harte hauled him to his feet, his hand wrapped in his hair. Even the tracker in the car had stopped moaning, though Eva decided it was only because the boy had gone senseless with fear. She kept her back to the open door, her gaze on the unfolding drama just feet away.

Harte flung Brian away, forcing the blond down to the ground once again.

“Now go. Never come here again. Ever.”

Brian staggered as he regained his footing. His face was twisted with anger, humiliation, and fear. Patrice looked around for support, finding none among her former pack mates.

“You'll be sorry!” Her voice was a soft hiss in the darkness, and Eva suddenly understood where the true power of this couple came from. She knew that Patrice was the one to fear. Her hackles went up in aggression. It was all Eva could do to not attack the other woman.

“Go, Patrice. You made your choice.”

Where Brian had slunk away in shame, Patrice kept her head high in impotent fury. She turned and moved with grace and pride. Before long, she faded from sight. The tension in the air slowly dropped.

Eva turned to the car and knelt on the frame of the door. She reached in and rested a hand on the boy's naked leg.

“Are you all right?”

“Mom?”

“I'm Eva. Are you all right?”

“The kid can't hear you, Eva. Can't see you either.” Kevin moved into the car from the other door and urged the boy to sit upright. He quickly loosened the ropes from the boy's ankles and wrists. Somehow, being surrounded by naked werewolves seemed normal. However, this boy's nudity was shameful. He shivered, and Eva pulled off her cape and wrapped it around his body like a blanket. He rubbed his face against the velvet, inhaling deeply.

“Mom.”

Eva sighed, finally taking him in her arms. He was small and young, though not as young as she'd initially thought. His hair was dark; his skin was fair. They could very well have shared the same mother.

“Eva, we need to get him out of here.” She looked up. Harte stood next to her.

One of Chase's men was settling into the driver's seat of the car, while the other carried the broken body of the driver back to the trunk.

“We'll get him home and take care of him.” His gaze darted around, looking for possible witnesses.

A light growl carried on the night air, and she looked over to where the small, ragged remnants of Harte's pack hovered on the sidewalk.

“Tonight is not a good night to challenge my decisions, Martin.” Harte's voice had dropped to a rumble. “I'm not particularly in the mood to listen to anything you have to say.”

The man ducked his gaze, as did the others.

“We didn't know what Brian was going to do, Harte. Patrice called us to help with the hunters. We didn't want to be dragged into Brian's challenge.” The woman spoke without raising her gaze from the sidewalk.

Eva watched them carefully. In their human lives, they were probably accountants and business owners, but here in the night, they were werewolves.

Whatever they sensed about the boy caused a primal reaction that hit them to the core. It was that sharp scent that came from the tracker. It was off somehow.

“What's wrong with him?” She held the boy closer.

“Nothing's wrong, Eva. He's part coyote. They're our natural enemies.” Kevin's voice was heavy and sad. He reached out and stroked the black fall of hair away from the boy's face. Kevin sighed deeply.

Chase was still fully dressed; he hadn't shifted. He stood tall and dark, his black eyes glittering in the night. Not a drop of blood stained his body, but death wafted from his very being. “We'll give him sanctuary, Eva. He needs medical care as well as emotional support. We have a doctor. We have other pack members who know what he's suffered.”

Automatically Eva glanced at Sage. He looked at the boy with raw grief in his eyes. Chase's pack was different than Harte's. There was probably no other pack like it. Gently, Sage leaned down and lifted the boy from her arms.

Down the street, a long black SUV cruised toward them. Another of Chase's betas was at the wheel. The sedan pulled away, heading toward the alley where the bodies of the Abraxas men lay.

“What did they do to him?” she asked Harte, but it was Sage who answered.

“Maybe they spliced his genes, or maybe his father was just some poor coyote shifter they caught. Their scientists are pretty damn creative.”

Chase took the tracker from Sage and settled him in the back of the big vehicle.

Kevin. His scent was full of stress and doubt.

“That boy, Harte.”

“I know.” He threw an arm around the younger man's shoulders and pulled him close. “That was you not so long ago.”

“It was bad enough for me. I can't imagine how hard it will be for him.”

Kevin was full wolf, but a coyote pack had found him as a young man about the same age as the tracker. He'd been wandering the desert naked and dazed, traumatized from his treatment at the hands of Abraxas. The coyote shifters had taken care of him, raising him until he was a young adult. Their pack alpha had then brought Kevin to Harte, trusting him to take the young wolf into his pack.

It had been hard. He'd had to contend with the ingrained prejudice of the pack as well as its fear that he was a spy. Kevin hadn't been born an omega; he'd been forced into that role to survive. His submissive nature had allowed that adaptation.

“That boy is going to need me, Harte.”

“Go. You're right. You keep an eye on that kid. He's going to need your understanding.”

Chase came around the rear of the SUV. He was a dark presence in the night.

“Are we ready to go?”

“Can you find space for one more? I think Kevin might be helpful with the boy.”

“Understood.” Chase gave a grim smile as he glanced at the small cluster of wolves behind Harte. “You can't assume that Abraxas doesn't know you're here.

Your people aren't safe.”

Harte scented the night. Chase's men had already taken the corpses of the Abraxas hunters. In a day or two, those three bodies would appear in another city or even another state. They might never appear at all. But Abraxas would get the message. They'd never found the hunter who had caught Eva. He'd vanished like the wind.

“There's strength in numbers, Harte. We've got space. If you want to stay alpha of your pack, we can get you set up close by. You can even cross the border into Nevada.”

He nodded. Chase's suggestion bore consideration.

“If anything happens…”

“If anything happens, it will be too late for the wolf that it happens to.” Chase extended a hand, and Harte took it, not shaking, but simply holding it.

“I'll take care of them, Harte.”

He nodded and then looked up at the Truckee alpha. “That hunter—do you know him?” He felt Eva move to his side and automatically his arm went around her shoulder, pulling her close.

Chase looked away from Harte, his gaze following the path that Brian and Patrice had taken.

“That's Wraith. I don't think anyone knows him. I suppose that in a way, he's as captive to Abraxas as we were.” His gaze returned to Harte. “You won't hear from those two again. He won't go back to Abraxas empty-handed.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly. He gave us Eva and the tracker in exchange for your troublemakers.

As far as he's concerned, you're square.”

“Will he lead other Abraxas hunters to this area?”

Chase shrugged and turned to the SUV. “Who knows? They might hold him, but they don't own him. Even back in the labs, Wraith operated under his own agenda.”

They watched Chase climb into the truck. Sage had donned a pair of sweats and tossed a pair to Kevin. Eva felt Harte's three wolves at their backs as the SUV

vanished into the fog. As though a spell lifted, a cluster of cars approached the traffic lights. Eva realized that she was the only one of the group with clothing. She also realized that Harte was looking at her with heat in his eyes, and his arousal was evident.

“You three go home.”

“But Harte…” They moved closer.

“Now! Present yourselves at one o'clock tomorrow. Notify the rest of the pack that we'll have a general meeting at two o'clock.” His gaze didn't leave Eva's face.

Neither of them watched as the three shifters stepped away, fading into the mist like ghosts.

It occurred to Eva that she was profoundly grateful that the night was foggy.

She took a step backward and then took another as Harte matched her progress. He was in his human skin, but the wolf was right there on the surface for her to see and scent and touch. He reached out, and she smiled coyly, taking another step back.

“You can't outrun me.”

“I'll bet I can.” She loosened the skirt and let it drop to the ground. The blouse followed. Eva picked up the rumpled garments and carried them deeper into the alley, careful not to turn her back on the man-wolf that was stalking her. She drank in his form; his shining hair dropped nearly to his shoulders, and his skin gleamed under a dim light. He was sweaty and bloody, but that would vanish as soon as he shifted.

Lower, his cock was rigid and erect, swollen with the arousal that followed combat. Seeing her appraisal of his form, he dropped his hand to his shaft, and he stroked it gently, never taking his gaze from her.

There in the darkness, they stood like statues, each willing the other to make the first move.

It was Eva who broke and ran, dropping into her shift with a bit of awkwardness compared to Harte. He came up behind her and nipped her ass, forcing her to tuck her tail and run. Her claws scrabbled at the wet asphalt, and Eva launched herself to full speed, leaping over a shabby car, grinning a doggy grin when she heard Harte's claws scrape over the rusted metal of the hood.

She flew from the mouth of the alley, slowed abruptly on the sidewalk, then skillfully wove between parked cars, careful not to be spotted by late-night travelers. She'd become a wolf on these streets and had learned a few things the hard way. She wished with all her heart that they were across town, near Golden Gate Park or even the Presidio. They'd have had room to run there. But here, the hunt was made more challenging by the need to remain hidden.

She streaked along the sidewalk, wishing she could laugh as she dodged between a pair of late-night partyers who were exiting a leather bar. Exclamations turned to curses as Harte followed, his larger body knocking the men off their feet.

Eva took a hard right, all too aware that Harte was close on her heels… His teeth snapped as he nipped at her flanks. With one hard leap, he had her by the scruff of the neck and forcibly brought her to a halt. Eva panted and whined, twisting in his grip until she rolled to the ground, offering her belly. Harte released her and gently set one foot on her furry chest.

With a sigh, she shifted and looked up at the magnificent animal that held her in place. It was too dark to make out his color, but like her, his coat probably matched his coffee brown hair. Even without light, she could see the molten gold of his eyes. He leaned down and nuzzled her skin, working his way from her chest to her throat, paying special attention to the marks he'd left earlier. His tail came up, waving in satisfaction.